How Balanced Is Your Child's School Lunch?

Blog by: Courtney Standish Hernandez, 

 

MS, RD, LDN, CWPC

When I ask my 4 year old what he wants for dinner, guess what he says?  “Pizza!”  He is the son of a registered dietitian and is served healthy foods for all (well, almost all) of his meals and snacks.  But, given the choice, he would prefer to eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My son is not yet in the public school system, but I am already worried about the choices he would make for lunch once there.  Like other parents, I will put a limit on the frequency with which he can buy school lunch, believing that the lunch I send from home will be healthier than what he buys at school.  But, many parents around the country rely on the lunches at school to provide their kids with a balanced meal.   But, how balanced is it?

The good news is that the government recently enacted new standards, for the first time in 15 years, making school lunches healthier.  School cafeterias are now required to offer fruits and vegetables every day, increase whole grain-rich foods, serve only fat-free or low-fat milk, limit calories based on children's ages, and reduce the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  These are all wonderful and welcome changes and in many school districts have been in place for years.

The bad news is that the tomato paste on pizza is still considered a vegetable.  Last year Congress blocked the attempt by the USDA to stop counting tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable.  Congress also blocked the attempt by the USDA to limit the number of times French fries and pizza could be served in the cafeterias.  School lunches are big business and with big business comes powerful lobbyists in Washington who don’t want a change in the status quo.  Unfortunately, Congress put the interest of big business ahead of the interest of our nation’s children.  And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in this country???

These new standards are a step in the right direction; they are just not a big enough step.  We have kids with type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and 16 year-olds undergoing bariatric surgery.  Simply offering more fruits and vegetables is not enough.  We need to take away more of the unhealthy options served in school cafeterias.   If kids are given the choice between French fries or roasted baby potatoes, guess which most will choose?  We need to get to the point where the French fries are not an option.  Or, at the very least, an infrequent option.  We also need to give our kids more credit.  If the only foods we ever offer them to eat are French fries, hot dogs, chicken fingers and pizza then they will grow up thinking this is what they are supposed to eat.  What if we offered them real, oven-roasted chicken?  What if we gave them a side of cooked carrots with their chicken?  What if they ate it?  The more frequently you offer kids real, healthy, foods the more they will eat it.  Especially if the unhealthy choices are not sitting at the same table.

For now, the best bet is to send your child to school with their lunch box full of fresh fruit, whole grains and lean proteins.  Buying school lunch should be an occasional treat.  Hopefully, one day, Congress will pass standards strict enough that we can feel our children will only have healthy options from which to choose when they are in the school cafeteria.  Hopefully, that day will be soon.

Let's Band Together and See What We Can Do as A Team!

Let’s face it, exercising and eating healthfully can be a challenge, even for people who are currently healthy.  Wouldn’t it be more fun to band together and see what we can do as a team?  This is the idea behind two government challenges, one issued by Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett in 2008 and a more recent challenge issued by Boston Mayor Tom Menino this year.

The OKC Million Program challenged metro area residents to lose one million pounds.  The effort took four years but Oklahoma City reached its goal this year.  Over 47,000 individuals participated in the challenge and lost a combined total of 8,000 inches from their waists and walked over 1.2 million miles.  The challenge is part of an effort to change Oklahoma City’s image as one of the most unhealthy cities in the country.

Earlier this year Mayor Menino promised to help Boston residents shed a million pounds.  The citywide campaign, currently titled Boston Moves for Health, will launch this spring.   A customized web site will invite residents to record their goals and workouts while tracking their weight loss.  The city plans to use the web site as a resource where residents can locate indoor and outdoor exercise activities and learn more about health and wellness.  As part of the initiative the city and its partners will host bike rides, introductory exercise classes and other health and wellness related activities throughout the year.  Educational kits will also be distributed to city businesses with information on promoting exercise and healthy food choices at work.

Boston’s program will not be aimed solely at adults.  More than 20,000 school-aged children in Boston are overweight.  The mayor will work with daycare providers, educating them on how to prepare healthy snacks and how to incorporate more physical activity into their programs. Nutritionists will also be hired to work with local restaurants to develop healthy kids’ menus.

We are excited about these two programs because they are raising awareness of obesity and its health risks and taking action to make positive changes while reaching so many people.  We congratulate Oklahoma City on its initiative and in meeting its objective!  We look forward to seeing Boston’s program in action later this year.

The Wellness Workdays team is here to help you and your employees develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.  Our award winning corporate wellness programs can help your employees improve their health while maximizing productivity and saving your company money.  We offer some of the most exciting (and proven effective) team-based wellness challenges and walking programs available. We've analyzed our programs and seen as much as an ROI of 3.8. 

We also offer programs aimed at defeating diabetes, metabolic syndrome and stress, managing mental and emotional wellness, and vetoing vices. In addition, we provide insightful and engaging seminars and webinars on wellness, nutrition and fitness.  Our clients rave about our programs and many employees reach out to us to let us know the positive impact our programming has had on their lives.  It’s truly a rewarding experience for all.